New Year, New Mindset (& Recipes!)

Happy New Year!

Lots of hope for health and happiness in 2022 :)

With the start of a new year, it may seem tempting or routine to set New Years’ resolutions. Yet many of us find ourselves abandoning those resolutions only after a short period of time.

The truth is that resolutions don’t work most of the time. It’s not because we set the wrong goals or that we’re incapable of achieving those goals. The New Year is a great time to reflect on what we’ve done and where we want to be. The fact that we even set goals to begin with is outstanding. But we need to start considering how we think about our goals—most of the time we focus on the negatives and our resolutions end up being these large, all-encompassing goals that are very difficult to reach. We need to start thinking about the good that we have done and all the accomplishments we have made before considering areas in which we want to improve. Then we need to start small.

Setting small goals is the first step to achieving a larger end goal. Small goals are more specific and set easier standards for change than a large goal. Large behavior changes like starting a new fad diet or deciding to work out every day become unreachable if you’re not used to cutting out whole food groups or if working out every day isn’t your routine. Moreover large goals that focus on things like weight loss and numbers on a scale only further facilitate a poor relationship with the body and with food.

A small, manageable goal is the perfect place to start, and you can build on small behavior changes with time to achieve a larger end result. We often take it for granted that real, true, successful change takes time. For us to not abandon our goals, we need to accept that they will take time. Maybe this means formulating one larger resolution and writing down all the little steps that may lead you to that resolution. Maybe your goal is to achieve a healthier bodyweight this year. Instead of committing to a diet and tracking numbers on a scale, maybe first you think about a small change like adding one new vegetable in each day, or including 10 more minutes of movement into your day. The most important thing is that the goal should be relevant to you and should fit your needs and your current lifestyle.

The other thing we want to think about in this new year is to focus less on weight and more on feeling healthy. Oftentimes with weight loss we get too caught up in the numbers on the scale, and frustrated when we don’t see results. There are so many benefits that come with feeling healthier—more energy, better sleep, better digestion, more motivation, etc—yet we place numbers on a scale above it all.

What if we took the time to appreciate these benefits of feeling healthy, rather than fixating on number goals? We’d feel freer, especially around food. We also need to come to accept and appreciate that everyone’s healthy body weight is different, and that thin doesn’t always equal healthy.

In honor of this new year, let’s be kinder to ourselves. Let’s improve our relationship with food and our bodies by prioritizing feeling healthy. Let’s set small, manageable goals that we can build upon to reach a larger end goal. And let’s appreciate everything we’ve accomplished this year!

And for a bonus, here’s a recipe to start off your healthy new year:

Loaded Veggie Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey

2 tbsp olive oil

2 carrots, cut evenly

1 cup chopped celery

1 leek, chopped

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic, sliced thin

1-2 cups diced baby potatoes

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 cup chopped kale

Juice of ½ lemon

Pinch of salt & pepper

Steps:

1. In a large pot, brown the ground turkey. Once done, set aside.

2. Sauté carrots, celery, and leek in olive oil until tender, 8-10 minutes. Add a pinch of salt. Add in thyme, red pepper flakes, and black pepper and stir well. Then add the garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes more.

3. Add the cooked ground turkey back to the pot along with the diced potatoes. Then pour in chicken stock & water and bring to a simmer. Add the bay leaf, then cover the soup and allow to simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and cooked through.

4. Remove the bay leaf before adding the kale. Maintain a simmer until the kale reaches desired wilt, then squeeze lemon juice for the final touch🍋

Happy New Year!

By Jessica Kaplan